Community food pantry in Denver's Globeville neighborhood urgently needs donations
A community food pantry in Denver's Globeville neighborhood is in dire need of monetary and fresh food donations.
For the last 10 years, Birdseed Collective nonprofit has been serving residents with a box of fresh groceries every Monday.
The food pantry is located inside the Globeville Center.
Recently, they have been serving about 70 families weekly, but are struggling to keep up with the need. Many factors have led to this, including losing out on a key donor for a brief period, which then led to a food shortage of about 1,000 pounds weekly.
Other factors include rising grocery costs, and a denied $50,000 city grant. The stress the nonprofit is experiencing is mounting.
Still, even when they are struggling, the nonprofit finds a way, according to director Kristina Garcia.
"A lot of our residents are elderly and homebound, living off Social Security. They're living month to month on a fixed income," said Garcia.
Globeville is considered a food desert due to limited access to grocery stores, economic challenges and transportation barriers.
"I would say the closest grocery store is over 5 miles away, and that would be going downtown," added Garcia.
This makes the program vital for residents like Angela Garcia.
"Well, I retired and I didn't have enough money to buy groceries. One day I was walking by and saw they were giving away food. I asked if I could get some, signed up and have been coming ever since," said Angela Garcia.
Kristina Garcia says they refuse to close their community food pantry, regardless of the situation they are currently in.
"We've never closed in all of these years -- 10 years of running the food program -- because, as we say, hunger doesn't take a holiday," said Garcia.
The nonprofit is looking for monetary and direct food donations such as meat, produce and spices.
"We run out of food in 6 minutes. We start at 3 p.m. and by 3:06 p.m. we're out of food. So that's how quickly our 70 boxes go," said Kristina Garcia. "And our families that we serve usually are between three and 10 per household, so our boxes probably last them only a day or two in the household."
Residents like Angela Garcia believe the nonprofit will bounce back and continue to serve people like her.
"What we lack in sidewalks, lighting, crosswalks and food, we make up with our heart, and I have full strength and trust in Birdseed that they will continue to feed the community," she said.
For more on how to help, visit birdseedcollective.org.